Car recall in India

Substandard or faulty components often force car manufacturers in India and around the world to order a recall of their vehicles. While it does take a toll on the company’s image, it also saves it from a possibly bigger humiliation in case of mass faults being reported and causing accidents. Several companies have therefore issued a number of recalls.

Honda India issued a massive recall of over 1.9 lakh cars due to the faulty Takata airbags which have been giving automakers nightmare the world over.

Maruti Suzuki called back 75,419 units of Baleno and 1,961 units of Dzire for an upgrade to the airbag controller software in both the models. The company had earlier issued a recall 1 lakh A-Star cars for a fuel tank glitch.

Ford India recalled 48,700 Ecosports for faulty brake, fuel lines and rear seat. Also in April 2016, 42,300 units of Figo and FigoAspire were called back due to software glitches in their airbag operation.

General Motors (GM) India had to recall 1,01,597 units of Chevrolet Beat (diesel) to replace faulty clutch pedal lever in December 2015.

However the largest vehicle recall in India was by Volkswagen during the global emission cheating scandal where the German automotive giant ordered the call back of 3.24 lakh cars in December of 2015.

According to the company, there is a possibility that in some of these cars, the customers may feel the steering heavier and EPS indicator light comes on. HCIL will voluntarily replace the EPS column unit after inspection, if required.

Germany ordered Monday the recall of some 774,000 vehicles from Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler across Europe, citing illegal "defeat devices" designed to conceal high levels of harmful emissions from regulators' tests.

The Italian-American automaker said no injuries or crashes are related to the large recall campaign but said it had one report of a driver of a 2017 Dodge Journey unable to deactivate the cruise control.

BMW is expanding a recall of vehicles in Britain, which it launched last week, by 88,000 cars to a total of 390,000, in the wake of a BBC investigation which found that some vehicles could cut out completely while being driven.

German magazine Der Spiegel reported the recall earlier on Friday, saying the two models equipped with the latest Euro-6 diesel engine generation were fitted with more so-called defeat devices capable of reducing emissions in laboratory tests.

Considering that the Indian automobile manufacturing sector is the primary focus of the Indian governments Make in India campaign, an issue which largely remained unaddressed was the lack of specific laws relating to automobile recalls and product liability in India. So far, auto manufacturers have been guided by the Voluntary Code on Vehicle Recall (Code), formulated by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. However, since the Code has been formulated by a society and adherence to the Read more..